This is what delousing looks like: Lice outbreak at Occupy Portland

posted at 5:30 pm on November 7, 2011 by Allahpundit

Via Jim Treacher, insert the obligatory joke about “parasites” here. That’s the first clip below; the second, also via Treach and fully self-explanatory, shows the “Occupy” ethos in microcosm. Their first, last, and seemingly only goal right now is to stay put at all costs; whatever consequences might flow from that are something they can worry about tomorrow. And that leads directly to the third clip, this time via Verum Serum but also from Occupy Portland. What happens as the reality dawns that the camp is “a growing pressure cooker” filled with drugs and “sex offenders”? (Follow the link to VS if you need a transcript to follow along.) There’s no way for them to clean up without expelling troublemakers in the group, but the troublemakers have as much a right to be there and “protest” as the rest do. The next stage, maybe: “Occupy” leaders joining forces with police to target the miscreants in their midst?

New numbers from Rasmussen tonight: 33 percent view the protesters favorably compared to 43 percent who view them unfavorably. That’s roughly in line with a new Boston Herald poll putting the split at 35/40. To think, we might be just a few more mob scenes away from 50-percent unfavorables. I wonder how many windows they’d have to smash to get there.

Update: Verum Serum e-mails with a correction: The speaker in the third clip says “pressure cooker,” not “clusterf***er” as originally thought. Duly noted. I fixed the quote above to reflect that.

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Comments

Everything these people say is prefaced with “They”. They have lice. What are They doing about the lice? They should quarantine anyone they find with lice. etc., etc., etc.

Personal responsibility is what these fools are protesting. It’s the moochers vs the makers, the looters vs the producers, and don’t think for a second it is otherwise. But the looters and moochers don’t even have the motivation to go this far on their own. They are being steered by someone with a goal and the resources to employ this method. Follow the money.

What happens as the reality dawns that the camp is “a growing pressure cooker” filled with drugs and “sex offenders”? (Follow the link to VS if you need a transcript to follow along.) There’s no way for them to clean up without expelling troublemakers in the group, but the troublemakers have as much a right to be there and “protest” as the rest do.

Naw. The real problem with purging the troublemakers is that you would have nothing left but an obviously fringe group, which would be dismissed as a bunch of harmless cranks by the public. It’s crucial for these “Occupy” movements that they maintain the illusion of being massive and popular.